BELFAST – At the same time the City Council is taking steps to shut down the project, the planning board has determined that the Lowe’s Home Improvement store proposed for the east side is a permitted use under the city’s zoning code.

The company wants to build a 175,000-square-foot Lowe’s and two 2,500-square-foot retail stores on the 80-acre site off U.S. Route 1. The project calls for 900 parking spaces and is expected to bring 150 jobs to the city, according to company officials. Current zoning on the site permits large-scale development, but that could change before construction begins on the project if the council gets its way.

City planner Wayne Marshall said the board met with Lowe’s site developer Todd Morey and engineer Austin Turner on Wednesday to review the firm’s preliminary plans. Marshall said the representatives informed him that it would take nearly two years before the project could be completed.

“What they are looking at is they are at the start of the process on this particular piece of property,” Marshall said Thursday. “They are talking at least 18 months before they are even in the ground on this piece.”

Lowe’s is moving forward with its plans at a time the council has put in motion a zone change that would prevent large stores from building on the Lowe’s site. The council voted 3-2 earlier this month to change the zoning and has scheduled a public hearing and final reading of the zone change proposal for March 25.

The makeup of the planning board was reduced by two members before the board took action on Lowe’s preliminary proposal.

Member Elizabeth Minor recused herself because of her involvement in a three-year-old lawsuit challenging the legality of the Special Commercial District where Lowe’s plans to locate.

In addition, the board voted 3-2 to remove member Lewis Baker from the deliberations because of his involvement with the group New Shopping Opportunities for Belfast that was responsible for the creation of the special commercial zone in 2004. Minor and Baker subsequently left the meeting, Marshall said.

Marshall described Lowe’s proposal as a “sketch plan” that was designed to give the board an idea of what the company had in mind for the site. The sketch plan is the first step in what he envisioned as a three-step board review.

Marshall said the board discussed having the company undertake a traffic study from the Veterans Memorial Bridge at the junction of Routes 1 and 141. They also discussed proposed ordinance changes already in the works that could reduce the number of parking spaces on the site from the 900 currently required in the city code to 575. Lowe’s indicated that it would prefer 400 spaces if allowed.

Board member Biff Atlas also suggested that Lowe’s consider creating a joint access road between its store and potential competitor Viking Lumber Co. next door so that Viking could serve as the company’s lumber outlet.

“The board members said that was an inappropriate area to go into,” Marshall said.

Marshall noted that because the project would require the filling of several acres of wetlands, the Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would have to sign off on the plans. In addition, he said, the Department of Transportation also needed to be involved because of the site’s location off Route 1.

“They said they do not plan to come back to the board before July,” Marshall said. “That’s because they have to do more investigating and meet with other agencies.”

wgriffin@bangordailynews.net

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